Device for imitating the sound of a plectrum instrument

Abstract: Device for imitating the sound of a plectrum instrument, including: -- a microprocessor (3) which is suitable to convert a chord set up on a keyboard (13), received by means of a standardized signal, into a chord which is identical but is, in terms of fingering and number of strings, of the type obtained on the instrument to be imitated; -- elements (7,19), equal in number to the strings of the instrument to be imitated, which are suitable to sequentially undergo a change in state caused by the hand of a user (12) who performs a movement that is identical to the one made to obtain the sound of the instrument to be imitated, and are suitable to send, as a consequence of said change, a signal to said microprocessor (3) to transmit said chord to a sound card by means of a standardized signal.

Description: The present invention relates to a device for imitating the sound of a plectrum instrument. It is known that in the field of musical instruments there are instruments which include a keyboard connected to electronic equipment by means of which it is possible to imitate the sounds of many instruments: thus, by playing a certain chord on the keyboard, that chord will be heard as if it were played by a flute, a saxophone, or any instrument, according to the selection made by the user by pressing different buttons. Commercially available instruments are all standardized, most of them according to a system known as MIDI: a chord played on the keyboard corresponds to the external output of a standardized signal and to a simultaneous signal to a sound card which is suitable to emit the sound and is contained within the instrument; external signals may also reach the sound card, and it is furthermore possible to interrupt communication between the keyboard and the sound card. Instruments known as "sequencers" are also commercially available: these instruments emit standardized signals which are suitable for being received by a sound card to create an entire piece of music, and each emitted signal corresponds to a recorded chord originally set up on a keyboard. The above described instruments allow to imitate excellently the sound of a vast number of different instruments but not of plectrum instruments such as the guitar or the mandolin, because in these instruments a chord is produced by a fingering, i.e. an action of the fingers, which is very different from the action used at the keyboard (it is enough merely to consider, for example, that the same chord is formed by pressing three keys on the keyboard and six strings on a guitar neck), and because the strings of plectrum instruments form the chord by acting at a very short time interval from each other due to contact with the user's descending and ascending hand. EP-A-0 251 329 discloses a an electronic stringed instrument which is connected to an apparatus capable of simulating a standard stringed instrument. The electronic stringed instrument sends generates a tone generation start instruction signal and supplies such signal to the apparatus where a tone generation processing is performed in order to generate a predetermined musical tone. However, the user must be able to play a stringed instrument since the standard technique must be used on the electronic stringed instrument. The aim of the present invention is to provide a device which, when coupled to a keyboard instrument or sequencer of a known standardized type, allows to perfectly imitate the sound of plectrum instruments. The proposed aim is achieved by a device for imitating the sound of a plectrum instrument, according to the invention, as defined in claim 1. Further characteristics and advantages will become apparent from the description of two preferred but not exclusive embodiments of the invention, illustrated only by way of non-limitative examples in the accompanying drawings, wherein: figure 1 is a perspective view of the invention; figure 2 is a view of a detail of figure 1 shown in phantom lines; figure 3 is a view of one method for using the device according to the invention; figure 4 is a view of an embodiment similar to that of the prior art. With reference to the above figures 1, 2, and 3, the reference numeral 1 designates the device meant to imitate the sound of a guitar, which is wholly contained in a small structure which is suitable to be fixed to the body of a user by means of straps 2, as clearly shown in figure 3. The base 3 contains a microprocessor which converts the chords set up on the keyboard into chords exactly as they would be obtained by appropriately pressing one's fingers on the strings of a guitar; the two bridges 4 and 5 extend from said base. The bridge 4 contains the support 6, in which one end of the metal bars 7 is snugly inserted; said bars are six, like the strings of the guitar that the device seeks to imitate, and are arranged parallel to each other, and lie within the same plane, exactly like the strings of a guitar. At their other end, the bars 7 are placed within the field of an optical sensor 8, connected to the microprocessor by means of conductors 9, between the part 8a that transmits a beam and the part 8b that receives it, so as to interrupt said beam in the non-deformed position shown in the figures, and so as to allow the beam to pass as a consequence of the elastic deformation caused by the passage of the user's hand, optionally provided with a plectrum. Each bar 7 furthermore has a device that provides elastic return to the non-deformed position; said device comprises a rubber ring 10 which is in contact with the end of the hammer 11, which is rigidly coupled to the bar 7 and is made of nylon to facilitate its sliding. A form of use of the invention is now described with reference to figure 3. A user 12 is able to play the per se known standardized electronic instrument 13 which comprises the keyboard 14 and includes an electronic device that is capable of sending simultaneously, at each chord played on the keyboard, a signal in output and a signal to a sound card which is contained in the instrument itself; it is possible to disconnect the communication between the keyboard and the sound card, and in this way the signal that corresponds to a chord played on the keyboard is only sent externally with respect to the instrument; provisions are also made for the sound card to receive signals from outside. In order to obtain the guitar sound from the sound card of the instrument 13, the user 12 fixes the device 1 to his belt after connecting said device, by means of the cable 15, to the output of the signals from the keyboard and, by means of the cable 16, to the input for signals from outside the sound card, and after disconnecting communication between the keyboard 14 and the instrument's sound card. Music is played as shown in figure 3: the left hand of the user sets the desired chord on the keyboard 14, thus sending a signal to the microprocessor contained in the device 1, by means of the cable 15; said signal is processed in the sense that it is converted into a chord that is identical but is of the type that would be played by a user who acted on the strings of a guitar; the right hand, in contact with the bars 7, makes the same movement that it would make on the strings of a guitar, and the consequent status change of said bars makes the optical sensors 8 send signals to the microprocessor, consequently causing the microprocessor to send a standardized signal, through the cable 16, to the sound card contained in the instrument 13. The described methods for generating the chord emitted by the sound card, which is amplified by the speakers 17 and 18, clearly show that said chord is a perfect imitation of the chord played on a guitar. The described form of use of the invention relates to an operator capable of playing the keyboard 14, but the device 1 could be equally connected to the output of an apparatus known as "sequencer" which emits, in the form of standardized signals, recorded chords initially set up on a keyboard in order to process them in the described manner and send them to a sound card which could be inserted in the sequencer itself or in a keyboard which an operator could just pretend to play. A variation similar to embodiment known from the prior art is shown in figure 4: in this variation, instead of the bars 7 there are wires 19, equal in number to the strings of the instrument to be imitated, which are stretched between the bridges 20 and 21 at the ends of the base 22 which contains the microprocessor; each wire is in contact with a microswitch 23 which is connected to the microprocessor so as to send it a signal when the wire changes its tension when touched by the user. A piezoelectric sensor connected to the microprocessor may also be in contact with a stretched wire 19. However, the elements suitable to undergo change, with a consequent transmission of a signal to the microprocessor as a consequence of their actuation by the user's hand, may assume even other embodiments. According to one of these embodiments, each element can comprise a bar made of a material that is sensitive to a magnetic field, said bar being inserted between magnetic field generators which are connected to the microprocessor to send signals which are proportional to the change in said field caused by the movement of the bar produced by the user's hand. In another embodiment, each element is shaped like a bar which is suitable to form an electrostatic field together with an adjacent bar, and said bar is connected to the microprocessor to transmit the changes in said field to said microprocessor when the bar is moved by the user's hand. Each element may also be obtained by means of a strip of a printed circuit which is connected to the microprocessor and is suitable to undergo a change in state due to contact with a pen made of conductive material, or by means of a beam which runs from an emitting source to a receiver, both of which are connected to the microprocessor, said beam being suitable to be affected by the user's hand. The described invention is susceptible of several other modifications and variations, all of which are within the scope of the inventive concept; for example, it is obvious that the number of elements like the bars 7 or the wires 19 will vary according to the instrument to be imitated and must always be equal to the number of strings of said instrument. In the practical embodiment of the invention, all the details can be replaced with other technically equivalent elements; furthermore, any material, as well as any shape and dimension, may be employed. Where technical features mentioned in any claim are followed by reference signs, those reference signs have been included for the sole purpose of increasing the intelligibility of the claims and accordingly, such reference signs do not have any limiting effect on the scope of each element identified by way of example by such reference signs.

Claims: A device for imitating the sound of a plectrum instrument, comprising: a microprocessor which is suitable to convert an input signal, representative of a chord set up on a keyboard (13), into a chord which is identical to the chord set up on the keyboard but is, in terms of fingering and number of strings, the same as a chord that would be obtained on the instrument to be imitated; elements (7,19), equal in number to the strings of the instrument to be imitated, which are suitable to sequentially undergo a change in state caused by the hand of a user (12) who performs a movement that is identical to the one made to obtain the sound of the instrument to be imitated, and are suitable to send, as a consequence of said change, a signal to said microprocessor to transmit said chord to a sound card by means of a standardized signal, each of said elements (7,19) being provided with a device (10,11) for its elastic return to an unchanged state, characterized in that the device for the elastic return of each bar to the non-deformed position comprises portions (10) of elastic material in contact with hammer-shaped portions (11) located at the end of said elements (7) which is arranged between a transmitting element (8a) and a receiving element (8b) of an optical sensor. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that said microprocessor and said elements (7,19) are combined in a single structure (1) suitable to be carried in a suitable position by the user (12). The device according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that each one of the elements (7) that are equal in number to the strings of the instrument to be imitated comprises a bar (7) which is fixed at one end and is placed, at its other end, in the field of the optical sensor (8) which is connected to the microprocessor, between the part (8a) that transmits a beam and the part (8b) that receives it, so as to affect said beam in the non-deformed position, and so as to allow said beam to pass as a consequence of the elastic deformation undergone due to the action of the user's hand, all of said bars (7) being arranged parallel to each other and lying on the same plane. The device according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that each one of the elements (7) that are equal in number to the strings of the instrument to be imitated comprises a bar (7) which is made of a material that is sensitive to a magnetic field and is inserted between magnetic field generators which are connected to the microprocessor, all of said bars (7) being parallel to each other and lying in a single plane. The device according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that each one of the elements that are equal in number to the strings of the instrument to be imitated comprises a bar (7) that is suitable to produce an electrostatic field together with an adjacent bar, all of said bars being connected to the microprocessor, being parallel to each other, and lying on a single plane.

Inventors: PATERLINI CARLO ALBERTO, PATERLINI, CARLO ALBERTO
Applicants: CHARLIE LAB SRL, CHARLIE LAB S.R.L.
Application year: 1994
Main classification: G10H3
IPC codes: G10H1, G10H3